Obama: 'positive lesson' learned

President Barack Obama’s highly anticipated “beer summit” with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge police Sgt. Jim Crowley came together Thursday night – with Obama declaring it a “positive lesson” on the nature of race in America and the two men saying they want to look forward, not back.

A shaky, silent two minute video of the meeting was all the public got to see, but afterwards, Obama and the two men – who unexpectedly found themselves at the center of a racially-charged national controversy – declared the meeting worthwhile.

Story Continued Below

Crowley even told reporters later that he and Gates had agreed to meet again – this time, not over a beer. He called the day “an effort not just to move the city of Cambridge or two individuals past this event, but the whole country beyond this and toward some meaningful discussion in the future.”

After the event, Crowley characterized the discussion as “two gentlemen who agreed to disagree on a particular issue. We didn’t spend too much time dwelling on the past. We spent a lot of time discussing the future.”

Asked if any apologies were exchanged or offered, Crowley said, “No.”

Gates didn’t characterize their discussion in a prepared statement released after the event, but said: “. It is incumbent upon Sergeant Crowley and me to utilize the great opportunity that fate has given us to foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.”

“At this point, I am hopeful that we can all move on, and that this experience will prove an occasion for education, not recrimination. I know that Sergeant Crowley shares this goal. Both of us are eager to go back to work tomorrow. And it turns out that the President just might have a few other things on his plate as well,” Gates said.

Obama, too, released a prepared statement: “I have always believed that what brings us together is stronger than what pulls us apart. I am confident that has happened here tonight, and I am hopeful that all of us are able to draw this positive lesson from this episode.”

But the portion of the event aired on TV had an anti-climatic feel, and in many ways was exactly what Obama had said it would be earlier – the men sitting around having a drink. One surprise was the addition of Vice President Joe Biden.

Analysts of race relations said the benefits of the White House encounter were murky, at best. Mary Frances Berry, a former chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, said the lack of any substantive message from the meeting was a missed opportunity. “The President has been forced to apologize and drink beer with the combatants in an almost comical photo-op,” Berry said.

“What we have is a very healthy demonstration of the form,” added Hilary Shelton, a vice president of the NAACP. “Now, we have to move forward with content…There’s more to be done. He’s the president of the United States. He is the chief executive officer for the country and the chief policy maker for the country. In that context, it’s now time to talk about policies that would prevent this kind of thing from happening again.”